It was the best of innovations, it was the worst of challenges, it was the age of technological enlightenment, it was the time of competitive obscurity, it was the epoch of groundbreaking breakthroughs, but we drowned in daunting difficulties, it was the season of optical promise, it was the season of financial peril, it was the spring of hopeful expansion, it was the winter of market skepticism, we had everything before us, we had nothing, we were all going direct to a future of photonic advancement, we were going the other way.